Study on Discovery of Social Expectation by Simplified Evaluation Tool of Disaster Risk for Small and Medium Enterprises

In Japan, risk of disasters at the national level, such as the Nankai Trough Earthquake, has increased. However, it is unlikely that many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) would proactively take business continuity responses, as they have low recognition of and priority for disaster risk, and their management resources are limited. To improve outcomes in such situations, discovering social expectations of mechanisms and functions needed to urge SMEs to take action for business continuity is essential; this can be incorporated into disaster management technology. This report summarizes the study of social expectations discovered through utilizing the disaster management technology, a simplified disaster risk evaluation tool for earthquakes, developed by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience. First, this report describes the background and significance of focusing on SMEs. Thereafter, it reviews previous studies on disaster risk evaluation for businesses, discusses the methodology to construct the disaster risk estimation method, develops an online tool, and discovers social expectations. Finally, it presents the results of the social expectations obtained by applying this methodology.